The present invention generally relates to internetwork firewalls and, in particular, to an internet protocol (IP) filter whereby a private IP network domain is mapped to a single IP address on the public Internet.
Firewalls are generally known and characterized by computer servers which function to couple nodes within the domain of the private network to nodes in a public network domain, such as the Internet. A deficiency of the known firewall products is the need for a unique public IP address for each concurrent session or interaction between public and private nodes.
A firewall providing conservation of public IP addresses would be desirable.